you're waking up to the smell of burning and summer. something in your mind tells you to stay unconscious. someone in the other room tells you your apartment in on fire. you'd give your left arm for another hour.
insurance companies come and go.
your landlord looks you up and down and questions the need for the stack of books near the radiator. they're for reading, you explain. he doesn't listen and moves the stack to the table.
fire hazard, he'll say right before he trips on a charred bit of carpet. you've always found it hard not to laugh.
finally, a tired fireman will trudge upstairs and whisper the cause to your landlord in hushed tones. his eyes raise slightly and his face flushes. you can make out the words "curling iron" and "1A".
your landlord lives alone in 1A. normally you'd laugh about the curling iron. normally your apartment hasn't gone up in smoke. you're surprised the books on the radiator survived.
outside, you light a cigarette and perch yourself on a window ledge. the family across the street is burying something in a shoebox and the small girl is crying loudly. no one on church street is having a good day. after a morning of smoke inhalation, your cigarette seems unnecessary.
its going to be difficult to find a new place on such short notice. you know tony is leaving his place in a week or two, but you've never gotten along with his neighbor. margot was looking for a roommate not too long ago, but you're pretty sure she moved in with that pseudo-vampire boy. whats his name? ___ the vampire. he's saving up to have his teeth modified. poor margot.
across the street, the old man pats the earth with his shovel as the small girl wails. perhaps you'll offer her your goldfish.
(you do not yet know your goldfish has perished in the fire.)
its nearing tenAM and you really should be getting ready for work. perhaps they'll understand if you're a bit late. your work shirt smells like a toxic campfire. this will never do. the firemen are still checking things out in the living room. throwing the workshirt to the floor, you climb into bed and pull the covers to your chin. if you breathe through your mouth, the smell isn't as bad.
work calls twice and you don't answer. right before you drift off, you remember that the margot's vampire's name is patrick.
goodnight.
